Raisin Township intersection to become a roundabout

Tuesday

Nov 27, 2018 at 1:00 PM

RAISIN TOWNSHIP — The first roundabout in Lenawee County outside of city limits will be built in an often congested intersection in Raisin Township next year.

Lenawee County Road Commission Managing Director Scott Merillat gave a presentation on the uniquely design roundabout that will be built at the Occidental Highway and Sutton Road intersection Monday to the Raisin Township board. He described the need for the roundabout and how it was going to change traffic flow for cars and trucks.

Looking at intersections throughout the county, Merillat said this intersection topped the list “because of the angle of the intersection and some of the problems with just getting out into the intersection as opposed to crashes and those types of things.”

According to Merillat, part of the design of the roundabout would be to control traffic and bring it from the 55 mph speed on Occidental, down to 25 mph before entering the intersection. This would be accomplished by the roundabout’s design, with curved islands for cars travel towards the intersection from all four directions. The islands would have breaks to accommodate driveways.

“The geometry is really what slows the cars down,” Merillat said.

Merillat showed the engineering drawings of the proposed roundabout in his presentation, which included curving islands before the intersection, that will be lit and the reinforced concrete island inside of the roundabout.

“There’s a couple different types of roundabouts — mini roundabouts that are really small with just a small island in the middle,” Merillat said. “Then There’s the normal roundabout that you see — they’re a little bigger than this. This is kind of a hybrid.”

The type of roundabout was developed by an engineer from Washtenaw County and allows for the control of traffic, smaller footprint and the ability for tractor-trailers to utilize. Two examples of similar roundabouts could be found south of Ann Arbor.

The intersection’s northeast and southwest corners will have concrete aprons for large vehicles such as buses and tractor-trailers to drive over during a turn. The middle island will have curbs approximately 5 inches high and be made of drivable, reinforced concrete.

Merillat showed the board diagrams that marked the path that a tractor-trailer with a 65-foot wheelbase would take coming from various directions with each possible turn.

Making a left turn in any direction would required the tractor-trailer to use more of the island, with a smaller part of the island used or clipped by the tractor-trailer wheels when going straight through the intersection, or nothing during right turns.

Merillat told the board that about half of the project will funded by air quality money from the state of Michigan and the rest coming from the LCRC’s general fund. He estimated that the design, engineering and construction of the roundabout will cost around $900,000. That price did not include some right-of-way that would need to be purchased.

While the LCRC hopes to start sometime in June, based on its schedule so far, it’s more likely to start the project mid-July and continue until September. Merillat estimated the project to take about three months to complete. During this time, the intersection would be completely closed to traffic and a detour put in place.

“I personally want to say thanks. I love roundabouts and that’s a great area for one,” board member Tom Hawkins said. “I’ve been on that corner a dozen times this week going northbound off of Sutton. It’s such a dangerous corner.”

Merillat said that studies have shown that roundabouts are able to have much more traffic go through them than intersections with traffic lights.

“It reduces driver delay, which is a huge thing,” he said. “You’re talking fuel efficiency, emissions, all those types of things.”

While he said there is an argument as to whether it will reduce crashes, the crashes that do occur are usually slow speed rear-end crashes, rather than life-threatening T-bone crashes. Merillat said that he’s heard from a retired Lenawee Intermediate School District employee and Tecumseh Public Schools administration that have welcomed the project because it would make it safer for school buses to turn from Sutton onto Occidental.

“The only complaint I’ve heard is people that drive Occidental that don’t drive on Sutton,” Merillat said. “The complaint is they’re going to have to slow down going down Occidental where they don’t have to now, which with anything we did, they’d have to slow down.”

After the meeting, supervisor Dale Witt said that he welcomed the project because it will cut down on drivers speeding through neighborhoods to avoid the intersection.

While no other roundabout projects are as far advanced as the Occidental and Sutton intersection, Merillat told the board that the LCRC is conducting surveys into the feasibility for a roundabout at the Rogers Highway and Sutton Road intersection in Raisin Township and the intersection of Tipton Highway and Hunt Road in Adrian Township.

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